You may have heard the following phrase from time to time; it’s a combination of intentional psychological abuse and corporal punishment designed to deprive children of their individuality and self-worth beginning at a young age.

That term is: “to break a child’s will.”

That’s right; MAGA churches teach that it’s parent’s supposed duty to “break a child’s self-will” lest that child develop a mind of their own and sense of individuality and agency: “The child never learned the value and fruit of correction at a young age. No one ever broke his self-will and as a result he carries around a rebellious spirit today.” A backup copy is preserved here.

The website “Godly Parent” insist that parents must break a child’s will. “Shields of Strength” emphasizes the same: “It is critical that we break our children’s will–we help them to surrender their will.”

“The Transformed Wife” states that “Our job as parents is to break our children’s stubborn, rebellious, and sinful will and replace it with a will that first wants to please and obey their parents and when they grow older with a will that wants to please and obey the Lord.” They talk about “indoctrination” in schools, but this is the purest textbook definition of indoctrination.

The document cited in the third paragraph continues: “OBEDIENCE TO ONE’S PARENTS IS NOT AN OPTION THAT THE PARENT AFFORDS THE CHILD. Rather, obedience is to be demanded — with immediacy — always.”

Hold that thought, because I’m not finished with that particular document.

“Break a child’s will.” This is chilling language that describes a premeditated plan to deprive children of their psychological independence, self-determination and individuality. The very words, “break a child’s will,” just drip with calculated cruelty.

The concept originates from what could be considered MAGA’s Bible of Child Abuse Techniques: To Train Up a Child (TTUAC) by Michael and Debi Pearl. A summary version exists online. Trust me; the parenting advice is disturbing.

The author of TTUAC boasts about his “properly spanked and trained children,” adding that “My granddaughters laugh with joy after giving their baby dolls a spanking for “being naughty” because they know their dolls will grow up to be the best mamas and daddies in the world—just like them.” The author even saw fit to create an actual child abuse instruction video using a doll as the victim. (The linked page is that of a critic of TTUAC child abuse, not a proponent of it.)

The conclusion is inescapable: When you look at a MAGA lawmaker, candidate, activist, or other MAGA public official, you are almost certainly looking at a person who was raised in an abusive home, and who is almost certainly perpetrating the same evil on their own children. And this is their idea of governance as well.

In a nutshell, breaking a child’s will means beating out a child’s own self determination – their own concepts of the pursuit of happiness – and replace with blind obedience to the parents and the parents’ fundamentalist religion. And that brings me to Project 2025.

Page 13 of Project 2025 states, “When the Founders spoke of “pursuit of Happiness,” what they meant might be understood today as in essence “pursuit of Blessedness.” That is, an individual must be free to live as his Creator ordained—to flourish. Our Constitution grants each of us the liberty to do not what we want, but what we ought.”

This is blind obedience and denial of self-will, and Project 2025 just said it.

In this light, remember the document that I asked you to remember? Let’s look at its context and its intended audience. Its title is The Importance of Parenting and the Course of the Nation. It’s a political document, and its aim is government control, just like Project 2025.

It proclaims, “It follows that those in the institution of government should not only prioritize their own parenting responsibilities, but in a professional sense, seek to strengthen policies that help the nuclear family to train up a child.”

I will leave it as an exercise to peruse the full list of this Bible study’s sponsors. It’s a Who’s Who of all the people in the Trump administration who believe that our children’s wills should be broken for the purpose of blind obedience, and that breaking a child’s will should include beating them. The conclusion is inescapable: When you look at a MAGA lawmaker, candidate, activist, or other MAGA public official, you are almost certainly looking at a person who was raised in an abusive home, and who is almost certainly perpetrating the same evil on their own children. And this is their idea of governance as well.

In the bigger picture, that’s the ultimate purpose of all of Trump’s and MAGA’s chaos – the making it increasingly difficult to vote, the random abductions of immigrants by ICE, the threats on elected officials and against all who dissent. and the assaults by DOGE on most of the government institutions and programs that we have lived our lives taking for granted: One of its aims is to break the will of the American people.

This is MAGA’s Child-Abuse model of governance, and they’re trying to use it on us.

You will not break our will, you sons of bitches. Got that?

You will NOT break our will.